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Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL team owners announced a new league-wide policy today intended to curb on-field player protests against racial injustice and police brutality. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Today, the National Football League team owners unilaterally announced a new policy related to employee conduct during the playing of the U.S. national anthem at games. The policy states that all team and league personnel who are on the field "shall stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem." NFL players who do not wish to stand at attention, however, may now stay in the locker room until after the anthem has been performed.

Although certain aspects of the new NFL policy may seem entirely reasonable, it is not clear whether this new policy will be legally enforceable at all NFL stadiums.

One stadium where it may prove especially difficult for the NFL to legally enforce its new policy is at Chicago's Soldier Field. Indeed, a recent court decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois —Beckman v. Chicago Bear Football Club — held that a Green Bay Packers fan may proceed with his First Amendment lawsuit against the Bears after team management refused to allow him to attend an on-field event while dressed in Packers clothing.

The court's failure to dismiss the plaintiff fan's "free speech" claim in Beckman was based on the operating agreement between the Chicago Bears and the publicly operated Chicago Park District that gave the entities shared control over speech in the publicly funded football stadium. This notion of shared control is also reasonably likely to support the argument that decisions related to player protests at Solider Field might be seen as a form of "state action."

Beyond this particular problem with the new NFL policy, it is worth noting that the NFL's new anthem policy might also pose broader concerns under labor law. Because the new policy was unilaterally implemented by the league, it might be seen as violating labor laws for failure to collectively bargain over the mandatory terms and conditions of employment.

With Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid — former NFL starters who protested during the playing of the national anthem — still unable to find work, the topic of players' rights to protest police brutality and racial justice remains a sensitive one for the league overall. It also remains highly sensitive for American society. Leaving aside the merits of the current NFL player protests, over which reasonable minds may disagree, it is simply a bad look for both our country and our national pastime when such extreme efforts are taken to prevent individuals in the public eye from expressing their political opposition to the direction of our country.

America is a nation founded on free expression, and the educated, billionaire owners of the NFL need not expose themselves to legal risk simply to quash a particular political message that some find distasteful. The new NFL anthem policy indeed presents true problems, both for the league and for parties far beyond.